Florida charter schools (safety concerns)

“Worries Grow Over Safety Of Charter Schools.” Sun Sentinel (FL), 10/12/2003

A building inspector was unaware a charter elementary was opening in Davie until a few days before school started. He closed the school for a month because operators had renovated the building without getting required permits.

Code violations dealt a severe blow to a three-year-old charter school in North Lauderdale. The county ordered it closed for the entire year a few days before 300 students were to return this fall.

Sarah T. Reed Elementary charter school

“Eighth grader arrested with gun on Reed Elementary School campus.” WWLTV (LA), 8/22/2011

NEW ORLEANS – An eighth-grade student at Reed Elementary School in New Orleans East was arrested Monday afternoon after a teacher discovered an unloaded gun in his bag, school officials said.

Bill Murphy, the chief academic officer at Reed, confirmed to Eyewitness News that the gun was discovered shortly after 1 p.m., when a teacher noticed the student, whom he would not identify, was acting out of character.

The teacher noticed other students seemed to sense some sort of trouble, Murphy said, which led the teacher to approach the student, and ask him to search his bookbag. The teacher noticed the student was holding the bag close to his body, Murphy said.

The teacher asked if the student would allow the bag to be searched, to which the student agreed, Murphy said. When the bag was opened, the teacher found the unloaded gun inside. He was asked if it was his, and he said it was, according to school officials.

The student was taken to meet with school administrators and his parents and police were notified, Murphy said.

Murphy said the incident was handled exactly the way school policy dictates, and “90 percent of the students” probably had no idea what had happened. Classes resumed as normal.

Reed Elementary is a charter school operated by the Renew Charter Management Organization.

The Classical Academy

“Special report by state levels criticisms at TCA.” The Gazette (CO); May 08, 2009

Complaints that The Classical Academy's insular community created an environment where racism and religious intolerance were allowed to go unchecked raises questions about whether the charter school is welcoming to all students, according to a report released Friday.

The report to the Colorado Department of Education, triggered by parents' complaints, also found fault with the school's accounting practices, noted possible conflicts of interest with administrators who run a charter-school consulting business on the side and said the school failed to properly respond to allegations of sexual and physical assaults and bullying.

It concluded that while the school has high academic achievement, the "investigation revealed major areas of concern about management, safety and security of students."...

The CDE paid independent consultant James Sauls, of Colorado Springs, $9,500 to look into allegations made against the TCA by parents who said they turned to the state because the school and Academy School District 20 ignored their issues. TCA is a D-20 charter school with about 2,900 students on three campuses...

Friday's report said TCA failed to follow procedures regarding reports of sexual and physical assaults. In the Reece case, the report said, there was no evidence that an in-house investigation had been conducted, as school officials claimed. The police investigation was inconclusive, the report said...

[TCA board President Matt Carpenter]  and [school principal] Hyatt said they both were aware that chief financial officer Doug Hering and high school principal Peter Hilts started a charter-school consulting business, Advantage Insights Consulting Network LLC, in December 2007.

The report questioned whether TCA should have paid for their travel to charter school conferences that might have benefited their business.

Hyatt said he sent them to conferences for the benefit of TCA and it was appropriate for the school to pay. He said sometimes he and other staff attend such conferences as well.

The report also said the two had used school equipment to print business cards, but spokeswoman Susan Tillotson said TCA was reimbursed within the last month for those costs. She didn't know when the cards were printed.

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Read more: http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2009/05/dirty-and-dangerous-secrets-of.html

Spirit of Knowledge Charter School

“Charter school’s founder resigns; Parents tell of many concerns.” Telegram & Gazette (MA), 6/12/11

WORCESTER —  The founder of the city’s newest charter school has submitted her resignation, the second time she has parted ways with a school she created.

Julia Sigalovsky, executive director of the Spirit of Knowledge Charter School, submitted her resignation Friday, effective July 10, according to Richard Langevin, chairman of the school’s board of trustees. The resignation came just before the board was due to meet and discuss her evaluation, he said.

Parents said yesterday that the school had not lived up to its academic promises and that their children had felt bullied by staff. Shawn Yates of Worcester, who with his wife, Tess, leads the school’s Parent Action Team, said he hopes Ms. Sigalovsky’s resignation will be “a positive change.” The couple has not decided whether their daughters will return in the fall and will be looking for changes in how the school communicates and collaborates with families. He said the small class sizes, interactive learning and enrichments promised had not been fulfilled.

Maydee Morales of Worcester pulled her daughter out of the school before April vacation. “She was having anxiety attacks,” Ms. Morales said. “It wasn’t that the work was hard, because they can all do the work.” She said she had expected advanced curriculum and encouragement for her daughter to go to college, and instead found staff members skeptical of her daughter’s ability to get there.

“It was not tough love. They were not encouraging,” Ms. Morales said. “They actually put a lot of kids down.”

She and two other parents are writing a letter to the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which granted the school its charter, to inform them of their concerns, which include mistreatment and safety issues...

Learning Place Academy

LEE SCHOOL BOARD ENDS CONTRACT WITH CHARTER SCHOOL; March 8, 2011; WZVN-TV (NC)

LEE COUNTY: Lee County has 21 charter schools. They're publicly funded, but privately run. Tuesday, Lee County's School Board voted to terminate a contract with one scheduled to open this school year.

The Learning Place Academy is still listed online under Lee County's list of charter schools. But that will soon change after Tuesday's school board meeting.

The Lee County School Board voted to end its contract with the charter school…

The district claims The Learning Place Academy failed to secure a "suitable, safe facility."  Its governing board moved the school from its location 235 Joel Boulevard in Lehigh Acres 20 miles west to 940 Tarpon Street in Fort Myers.  The Tarpon Street location had previously been deemed unsafe for a school.

According to school district documents, McCullers had "observed facility concerns such as a lack of safety markings, dirty and damaged carpets, exposed electrical wiring, missing evacuation signs, and a lack of posted inspection certificates."…

The governing board for the school also never hired a principal, according the district records. And it had been granted a charter to serve up to 275 students this year, but never actually enrolled a student.

Now, reps from The Learning Place Academy have two weeks to request a hearing before they must repay the $87,000 loaned to them.

"The money that we forwarded them to teach students this year, we're now using to teach students in our schools, so we really need it back," McCullers said.

Attempts to reach the contact for The Learning Place Academy by phone and email this week were unsuccessful…

Stetson Middle School (Edison-managed school)

EDISON SETTLES PHILADELPHIA LAWSUIT OVER STUDENT ASSAULT; July 1, 2008; American School & University (Online Exclusive)

Days after arguing in court that it was not responsible for the safety of its pupils, Edison Schools Inc. has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a boy raped in one of its Philadelphia schools. In 2004, a 12-year-old boy was sexually assaulted by an 11-year-old classmate in Stetson Middle School. The boy's family contended in a lawsuit that Edison was responsible for the assault, a notion the for-profit manager of 16 public schools rejected. Edison contended that the terms of its contract with the Philadelphia School District called only for it to provide educational programs and training. The family has confirmed that the lawsuit has been settled, but would not discuss details.

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PARENTS: BOY, 12, RAPED BY MALE CLASSMATE AT SCHOOL - ENCOUNTER STARTED WITH DISPUTE OVER BALL; November 18, 2004; KTVU.com (PA) 

PHILADELPHIA -- An outraged mother says that her 12-year-old son was raped by an 11-year-old classmate at John B. Stetson Middle School in Philadelphia.

The 11-year-old has been charged with involuntary deviate sexual behavior.

The 12-year-old said it all started with a fight over a ball on Tuesday. Minutes later, the boy claimed, he was being sexually attacked…

"I'm upset with the school. They couldn't see two children fighting and somehow they get into the fire escape. How did that happen? How do you go in there without nobody noticing? No alarm systems, no cameras," the boy's mother said…

Late Wednesday afternoon, Edison Schools spokesman Richard Barth said there are no cameras where the alleged rape occurred.

"We are -- Edison Schools and the school district of Philadelphia, which are partners working at Stetson Middle School -- are conducting an internal investigation," Barth said…

The alleged victim has been allowed to transfer to another school. The boy accused of the attack has been expelled. Crisis counseling has been offered to both families.

Detroit Academy of Arts & Sciences

LAWSUIT ALLEGES MISCONDUCT AT DETROIT CHARTER SCHOOL, Jan 8, 2009, Detroit Free Press (MI) 

Two former employees of the Detroit Academy of Arts & Sciences charter school allege in a lawsuit that the school engaged in cheating on standardized tests, staff embezzlement, the downloading of nude photos and fire code violations. Aarmond Atkins, former dean of students for the academy's middle school, and Arnold Boyd, the middle school's in-school suspension director, say they were fired in November when they refused a demand from the principal to place students at desks in a middle school hallway and a utility closet in violation of the city fire code. Both men said they notified the Detroit Fire Department, which subsequently issued a citation to the school.

Benji’s Special Education Academy

EMBATTLED BENJI'S ACADEMY LOSES FIRST ROUND IN COURT TO TEA; FEDERAL JUDGE FINDS NO REASON TO HALT ITS CLOSURE, October 6, 2010, Houston Chronicle (TX) 

Supporters of Benji's Special Educational Academy on Wednesday lost their first battle in federal court to stop the closure of the Fifth Ward charter school.

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison declined to issue a temporary order that would halt the Texas Education Agency's decision to shut down the school…

Debbie Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the TEA, said Education Commissioner Robert Scott was moving forward with the process to revoke Benji's charter.

"We agree that closing a school once the school year has started is far, far from ideal, but there were so many health and safety concerns, as well as financial concerns, that we couldn't let it drag on," Ratcliffe said.

A TEA-appointed board of managers voted Sept. 13 to suspend operations at Benji's because, it said, the school was nearly bankrupt.

Supporters of Benji's have said the school could stay financially afloat if the TEA would release the state funding it was due in September.

A bank statement recently obtained by TEA officials showed the school had only $12.61 in cash, Ratcliffe said.

A new concern for TEA officials is the upcoming TAKS test, which begins Oct. 19 for high school seniors who have failed the exam. The principal at Benji's is refusing to give TEA officials the test booklets that were mistakenly delivered to the school, and they are concerned about a possible security breach, according to Nancy Juren, a state attorney representing TEA…

Benji's founder and chief executive officer, Theaola Robinson, has continued to keep the doors open for students despite the state's closure order.

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QUESTIONS RAISED OVER CHARTER SCHOOL'S FINANCES, September 25, 2010, KTRK TV (Houston, TX)

Where is taxpayer money going and how is a taxpayer-owned building being used? Those are the new questions complicating the battle over Benji's Charter School in northeast Houston.

Benji's Academy has had its charter suspended because of concerns about money mismanagement and out of a concern over the health and safety of its students. Now the city of Houston is investigating the school's use of its city-owned building on in northeast Houston.

Digging into Benji's financial problems, we found two leases for the same property. So while the school says it's working with TEA to reorganize, it appears it has more explaining to do about where state money went…

According to the agreement, the school has been paying a non-profit called Benjis Special Educational Academy Inc. $9,000 a month to use the land and the building on which it sits.

The problem is it doesn't own the land; according to tax records, the city of Houston does…

Not only is Benji's Inc. leasing land it doesn't own, but according to the Secretary of State's website, the school's superintendent, Theola Robinson, founded both the group and the school's board.

"The question is what does this other group do with the money? Who are they paying and why?" Bettencourt [Paul, former Harris County Tax Assessor] said…

…According to the mayor's office, officials started negotiating last year to raise the rent to almost $2,300 a month, but the school never paid that amount and the city never tried to collect.

"It tells you there's been no oversight of this," Bettencourt said. "This is not what should happen to taxpayer owned property."…

On Wednesday, the education commissioner suspended Benji's Charter for non-financial reasons. The TEA says it's concerned about student health, safety and welfare because of how school officials reacted the first time the TEA tried to close it. It says they didn't forward the important information it sent for parents, encouraged students to defy TEA orders by coming to school and lied to students about why the school was being closed.

Casa Ramona Academy

SAN BERNARDINO CHARTER SCHOOL MIGHT NEED TO FIX PROBLEMS BY FEBRUARY; November 24, 2010; The Sun (San Bernadino, CA) 

The fate of Casa Ramona Academy, a Westside charter school facing accusations of multiple instructional problems, may be decided by February, Danny Tillman, president of the school district board, said Wednesday.

The San Bernardino City Unified School District board has initiated a process that could lead to Casa Ramona losing its charter if campus leaders are unable to demonstrate students there are receiving a quality education…

Casa Ramona's problems, according to the school district, include the campus offering only one course with the University of California's approval as a college preparatory class, a lack of English language instruction and various problems with the campus' physical condition.

Believe High Schools Network

NOTE: Also see items labeled Believe High Schools Network @ http://charterschoolscandals.blogspot.com/search/label/**Managed%20by%20Believe%20High%20School%20Network

SPACE-STRAPPED CHARTER SCHOOL SENT STUDENTS TO FACTORY SPACE, August 13, 2010, Gotham Schools

Strapped for space, a Brooklyn charter school network sent its students to classes at a facility that was only approved for factory and office use — not educational purposes, according to security camera footage and interviews with people who witnessed students’ use…

In the last month, both the city and state departments of education have launched investigations into Believe’s use of the 33 Nassau space. The city department oversees Williamsburg Charter High School, and the state department oversees the two new schools, Northside and Southside charter high schools.

Officials at Believe did not return several phone call and e-mail requests for comment today…

During the school year, photographs taken by a former employee show that a privately chartered bus with the company Orzan Tours shepherded students between the office site on Nassau Ave. and their official school building, P.S. 126 on the other side of the McCarren Park…

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STUDENTS AT $100 A HEAD?, May 26, 2010, The New York Times

We know about schemes to pay students for high marks. And we’ve written about some of the marketing tactics schools are using to attract families. But one charter high school in Williamsburg is taking a step further – offering a $100 reward to any student who recruits another teenager to attend the school.

Last night we were sent a photo purporting to show a sign posted on the third floor of Public School 126 at 424 Leonard Street, which houses the Williamsburg Charter High School as well as its two spinoffs, Believe Northside Charter High School and Believe Southside Charter High School…

Officials about from the department’s charter school office received a similar picture of the sign last weekend and asked officials at the Believe charter network to take down the sign and rescind the offer, which the school immediately agreed to, Mr. Zarin-Rosenfeld said. He said that while it was not clear that there was anything illegal about the offer to pay students to recruit their peers, the plan raised several eyebrows…

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Read more details at: UPDATED: Recruitment Poster for Charter School: Hey Kid, Wanna Make a Hundred Bucks? (Ed Notes Online, May 27, 2010)

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Text on poster:

WANTED

FOR EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY

Our family is growing and we want you to help us recruit students who you feel would benefit from the exceptional opportunity to attend one of our Believe Schools in all grades.

$100 REWARD

for every student who you recruit, enrolls in our school and remains for at least one term with us!